When a star reaches the end of its life cycle it can shuffle off this mortal coil in a variety of ways, which depend inter alia on its mass. The big guys explode as novae or supernovae whereas the smaller ones fade out. The Very Large Telescope in Chile has caught the death throes of an old star that is fading out by means of a planetary nebula. It is giving off a bright green sheen that will go on for about 10,000 years. The color indicates that the object has a high abundance of oxygen.
A glowing bubble of gas, called a planetary nebula,
surrounds a dying old star located 3,300 light-years away in this image
captured by the Very Large Telescope in Chile.
Courtesy of the European Southern Observatory
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Pollyanna along with Titan and YandA send Happy Birthday greetings to our grandson Ari who turned 14 today.
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| Ari |
MYSOGENY IN PAKISTAN
Not everything that Pollyanna tells you has to do with pleasant things. On matters involving women and girls she is just as much a ranter as Titan. Again we see attacks against women and girls designed to prevent them from obtaining education and empowerment in society. This seems to be inherent in male-dominated religions in particular fundamentalist Islam. Women suffer discrimination in other faiths, but only in Islam does it reach the level of murder. In the city of Quetta in Pakistan, the violence started on Saturday when a bomb exploded on a bus carrying students to Sardar Bahadur Khan Women's University. When survivors were brought to a medical center, suspected suicide bombers stormed the building and started shooting indiscriminately. In total 25 people were killed in the two attacks. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a Sunni Muslim militant group blamed for a string of sectarian and high-profile terror attacks, has claimed responsibility for this attack. Pollyanna is outraged as you should be as well.
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| People in the Pakistani city of Quetta are in shock after Saturday's double attacks. Here, civilians are seen emerging from the hospital which was attacked. |
GENES CANNOT BE PATENTED
Let us move on to happier things. Pollyanna is delighted that the US Supreme Court has ruled that genes cannot be patented.This ruling has broad implications and can help make genetic testing for breast cancer risk cheaper and more available. We quote an expert:“The Supreme Court got it exactly right,” said Eric Lander, the president of the Broad Institute, a genetic research center affiliated with Harvard and M.I.T. “It’s a great decision for patients, it’s a great decision for science, and I think it’s a great decision for the biotechnology industry.”
While most agree with the Court, the Washington Post points out in an editorial that this cannot be the last word on the subject. "Congress must explore how to encourage useful genetic research while allowing the fruits of that inquiry to be used as freely as possible." Indeed things that occur in nature cannot be patented. The editorial makes a silly analogy to Isaac Newton, gravity and the apocryphal falling apple. A more apposite analogy would be to say that while Herz could not have patented electromagnetic waves that he discovered, Marconi could and did patent his radio transmitter and receiver.
A SUPERCELL IN TEXAS
Yosefa passed this on from Phil Plait. A supercell is a form of extreme thunderstorm generated when air masses of different characteristic collide. They can give rise to tornados. Here is a beautiful video of such an entity:
A supercell near Booker, Texas from Mike Olbinski on Vimeo.
WHY WE HATE TO GO TO GYM
Indeed, going to gym and jogging give us great health benefits, yet we all prefer to sit on a couch and watch millionaires exerting themselves on a field or court for our entertainment. Daniel Lieberman, an evolutionary biologist, discusses the adaptive value of our physical fitness and why we hate to run. Pollyanna, Titan and their imaginary playmates YandA go to gym faithfully. On Sunday, Y does a treadmill run while A goes to Pilatis core workout with a trainer. Meet Adi
Would you think that beneath that charming exterior there lurks someone who stresses your internal muscles as she smiles? During the week, Y works out with Batya in a group in Kiryat Onno while on Thursday A falls into the hands of one of these two weight trainers--Dana and Shira.
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| Shira left, Dana right |
Titan keeps himself fit by orbiting Saturn at a neat clip of 5.6 km/s and, despite your impressions from his blog, he has very little eccentricity. Pollyanna as a young active lass is in fine shape.
CHARITY SUNSHINE TILLMAN-DICK
She has a story that should serve as an inspiration for all of us and Pollyanna is not a purveyor of cliches. This woman is for real. She is an American-born soprano and a recipient of two double lung transplants. Charity has performed across the United States, Europe, and Asia in venues as diverse as the Rose Theater at Lincoln Center in New York City; The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC; Severance Hall in Cleveland, Ohio; Il Giardino Di Boboli in Florence, Italy; the National Palace of the Arts in Budapest, Hungary; the Tel Aviv Opera House in Israel; the American Embassy in Beijing, China; the United Nations in New York; and National Statuary Hall in the United States Capitol. She has collaborated and performed with noted conductors and musicians including Eva Marton, Bruno Rigacci, Joela Jones, Marvin Hamlisch, Bono, Zoltan Kocis, Joan Dornemann, and former Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice. Some of her operatic roles have included Titania in A MidSummer’s Night Dream, Gilda in Rigoletto, Violetta in La Traviata, and Ophelia in Ophelia Forever. Charity has also performed for numerous presidents, prime ministers, members of Congress, and world dignitaries.
Her story is wonderful and we are going to link you to her TedMed lecture so you can hear it from her.
VACCINATION FOR HVP WORKS
Yosefa has called to our attention a study that shows that since the introduction of the vaccine against human papillomavirus in the US, there has been a significant decrease in the incidence of infection with the viral strains that cause cervical cancer. The rate of infection dropped to 3.6% among girls ages 14 to 19 in 2010, from 7.2% in 2006. Pollyanna calls on all of you who have teenage daughters to get them vaccinated pronto.
HELP THE BLIND SEE
Thank you Yosefa for calling Pollyanna's attention to this new development. It should be a major step forward in the enabling and empowerment of blind people.
TIDBITS FROM SCIENCE
YES WE HAVE A PARADOX OR AT LEAST AN UNSOLVED MYSTERY
Neils Bohr, a founding father of quantum mechanics once said, "How wonderful that we have met with a paradox. Now we have some hope of making progress.".Prof. Bohr would be happy now. There is a rock known as NWA (North West Africa) 7325 that is causing quite a tizzy in the world of meteorite researchers. It has characteristics that indicate that its source was the planet Mercury. The chemistry is convincing to some but not to others. The discussion is most interesting although the issue may never be resolved since a sample return from Mercury does not seem to be in the offing.
Unearthly green rocks (one shown) found in the western Sahara last year may hail from Mercury.
S. Ralew
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SOCCER HEADS
We have long suspected that heading a soccer ball countless times will take a toll on the functioning of the player's brain. Indeed, the youth leagues in the US do not allow heading by players under the age of 18. It now has been shown in a recent study that heading the ball, while not causing concussion, can effect subtle changes in the brain that interfere with memory function. We think that the introduction of helmets would help. Helmets encountered resistance among ice hockey professionals, but are now standard. FIFA, are you listening?
ARCHEOLOGY WITH MODERN TECHNOLOGY FINDS LOST ANCIENT CITY
An ancient city over a millennium old has been discovered in Cambodia near the Angkor Wat temple, by means of LIDAR (light radar) by Australian archeologists. It is an amazing finding. The stunning discovery of the city, Mahendraparvata, includes temples hidden by jungle for centuries - temples that archaeologists believe have never been looted.
BOOK REVIEW
Before we move on to our silly section, we would like to give you a book review, which we have not done for a while We have read both of Khaled Hosseini’s first two novels, “The Kite Runner” (2003) and “A Thousand Splendid Suns” (2007), and understand well why they spent a combined total of 171 weeks on the bestseller list. His newest book
AND THE MOUNTAINS ECHOED
Khaled Hosseini
Riverhead. 404 pp. $28.95
received an enthusiastic review from Marcela Valdes, in the Washington Post. We have every intention of reading it.
What if? This week it is for the rowing enthusiasts among us, especially those with exotic tastes.
Pollyanna is a bit amused by complaints that the pace of modern life is destroying the quality of our lives. She thanks xkcd for helping to put this in perspective.
We dedicate this strip to Yosefa who has to put up with similar things in the real world:
FORGET THE OLD BOY NETWORK
DILBERT AND SCIENCE FICTION
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